Said and Delia unveil plans to shake up PN structures Said sees secretary-general being elected by general council Delia wants two assistant secretaries-general who cannot contest elections

As the race for the Nationalist Party leadership begins to take shape and heat up, the first two contestants to launch their leadership bids, Adrian Delia and Chris Said, yesterday unveiled their ideas for restructuring the party.

Leadership hopeful Adrian Delia said yesterday that he would like to see the party increase its number of secretary-generals to two rather than the current single post.

<< Moreover, he sees a disparity between the fact that, as matters stand, the post of assistant secretary-general can be occupied by a person who simultaneously holds political office. Delia said that under his leadership, the assistant secretary-generals would be precluded from running for any political office.

Under his leadership, Delia said that all candidates running on the PN ticket would be required to undergo a ‘grilling’ before the party’s General Council, after which a due diligence exercise, such as that currently being applied to the leadership candidates, would be carried out in their respect.

“The PN needs to update its structures in order to function more efficiently and to facilitate the political work that is required to keep up to date with today's realities.

“The creation of policy forums and focus groups was indeed a good step; however, it did not have the desired result. This is due to the fact that while the party could take up its position on issues of national importance, the party’s grass roots were not involved in the process.

“In this respect, we now need to create permanent structures within the party that spread out horizontally and include all branches of the party for each and every possible topic. Each of these new structures must have members appointed by the party’s other branches. It is absolutely not intended that these new structures take the work of existing branches, rather, they should complement that work with the aim of having the Nationalist Party’s policies being shaped by the people, and not from top to bottom.”

Delia is also proposing that the party’s Director for Local Councils should once again have a full-time position so the party would have a dedicated person running the office. The role, he said, is an important one and the party’s local councillors need to have all the support and resources possible.

Yesterday, fellow contender Chris Said, meanwhile, pitched the concept of having the party’s secretary-general being elected by the party’s councillors.

At a press conference in Birkirkara, the former minister, who had also been the party’s secretary-general for two years, said that he does not form part of any cliques and stressed that he would like to see important appointments being decided by the party’s councillors.

He said that under his leadership, the management of data and surveys would be the responsibility of the party’s electoral commission, which would have 15 votes in the general council and three in the party executive. Said also published his declaration of assets and that of his wife.